Memorial Set for Former Dean

Rancho Santiago College will hold a memorial service on Sept. 10 for Lee Ford, former dean of humanities and longtime theater arts instructor.

Ford, 65, died July 15 in Sedona, Ariz., of complications from viral pneumonia.

The veteran stage director’s students during his 30-year tenure at Rancho Santiago (then Santa Ana College) included motion picture actress Diane Keaton.

Ford began teaching radio broadcasting and theater arts at the college in 1950. He later served as a counselor, assistant dean and dean of the college’s humanities division. College officials said that during his tenure Ford developed and implemented most of the college’s existing theater arts curriculum.

In the 1960s, Ford took a group of Santa Ana College students that included actress Keaton to Mangos, Colo., where they established a summer repertory theater. Keaton returned to Santa Ana College and performed under Ford’s direction in “Little Mary Sunshine.”

College officials said Ford was instrumental in designing Phillips Hall Theatre, which opened in 1954. He directed his last college play, “The Fantasticks,” there in 1979.

Ford retired in 1980 and moved to Arizona, where he was active in community theater.

Burial services were held in Texas, where Ford is survived by his mother, a brother, an aunt and a nephew. The family has requested that donations be directed to the Lee Ford Memorial Scholarship Fund at the college.